Direct Synthesis of an OligonucleotideЦPoly(phenylene ethynylene) Conjugate with a
Precise One-to-One Molecular Ratio.

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Amplifying Fluorescent Polymers
Direct Synthesis of an Oligonucleotide–Poly(phenylene ethynylene) Conjugate with a Precise
One-to-One Molecular Ratio**
Chaoyong James Yang, Mauricio Pinto, Kirk Schanze,
and Weihong Tan*
Conjugated polyelectrolytes have great potential in biochemical sensor applications[1–8] because of their unique lightharvesting[9, 10] and superquenching[11–14] properties. Among
them, water-soluble poly(phenylene ethynylene)s (PPEs) are
attractive candidates in optical biosensing because of their
facile synthesis and high fluorescence quantum yields in
aqueous solution.[5, 6, 15] Highly sensitive bioprobes can be
constructed with these polymers for selective target recognition. To achieve this objective, the polymer must be
[*] C. J. Yang, Dr. M. Pinto, Prof. Dr. K. Schanze, Prof. Dr. W. Tan
Center for Research at the Bio/Nano Interface
Department of Chemistry
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7200 (USA)
Fax: (+ 1) 352-846-2410
E-mail: tan@chem.ufl.edu
[**] This work is partially supported by National Institutes of Health
grants and a National Science Foundation Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams (NIRT) grant. K.S.S. and M.R.P. acknowledge
support from the US Department of Energy (DE-FG02-03ER15484).
The authors also thank Dr. Jodie Johnson for his help with the
ESI MS analysis.
Supporting Information for this article is available on the WWW
under http://www.angewandte.org or from the author.
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2005 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
conjugated with a biomolecule such as a DNA strand, a
peptide, or a protein. Such conjugation can be accomplished
by coupling PPEs with pendant reactive groups to biomolecules with specific reactive moieties, for example, by formation of an amide bond between a PPE functionalized with a
carboxylic acid group and an amine-functionalized biomolecule. Although some progress has been made in the coupling
of PPEs to biotin,[11, 16] there remains a clear need to develop
new strategies for coupling PPEs to oligonucleotides and
proteins. Effective strategies for coupling such biomolecules
to conjugated polymers would have significant implications
for a variety of fields, including bioanalysis and biomedical
diagnostics.[17] Unfortunately, the coupling of PPEs to large
biomolecules is fraught with difficulty. First, the introduction
of reactive pendant groups can be challenging and may also
change the polymer properties. Second, unfavorable steric
and electrostatic interactions between the polymer and the
target biomolecule result in a low coupling efficiency. Moreover, the coupled product has chemical and physical properties similar to those of the free polymer, which makes it
difficult to separate the conjugated product from the
unreacted polymer. Finally, the degree of coupling to the
polymer is difficult to control because of the nature of the
polymer, the poor coupling efficiency, and the lack of
effective separation methods.
Herein, we introduce a versatile and effective synthetic
method for coupling oligonucleotides to conjugated polyelectrolytes. Instead of synthesizing the polymer and oligonucleotide separately before coupling, we treat the oligonucleotide
as an “end-capping” monomer in the Pd-catalyzed stepgrowth polymerization of a PPE-based conjugated polyelectrolyte. The oligonucleotide takes part in the polymerization
process and is incorporated into the PPE chain as an endcapping unit. The oligonucleotide-functionalized monomer is
bound to a controlled pore glass (CPG) solid support, thereby
allowing the DNA–PPE conjugate to be easily separated by
centrifugation. Furthermore, this method not only allows an
oligonucleotide to be conjugated to a PPE chain, but it can
also be extended to other biomolecules such as biotin by using
a similar approach with biotin phosphoramidite.
Scheme 1 shows the process of making a DNA–PPE
conjugate. On a CPG support, an oligonucleotide with a
defined sequence was synthesized from the 3’ end to the 5’ end
by using standard phosphoramidite chemistry (a). 5’-Dimethoxytrityl-5-iodo-2’-deoxyuridine 3’-[(2-cyanoethyl)-(N,Ndiisopropyl)]phosphoramidite (5I-dU phosphoramidite) was
used to introduce a 5I-dU residue as the last base of the
oligonucleotide (b), which provided the functionalization
necessary to render the oligonucleotide active as a monomer
for the PPE. Under Sonogashira conditions, the 5I-dU base
couples to terminal alkynes with high efficiency.[18, 19] Without
deprotection and cleavage from the CPG solid support, the
5I-dU-functionalized oligonucleotide was added to the PPE
polymerization solution as an end-capping monomer, thereby
allowing the polymer chain to cross-couple with the CPGlinked oligonucleotide (c). After polymerization, the CPG
was washed and centrifuged several times until no PPE was
detected in the supernatant. This procedure was followed by
overnight incubation in ammonia to cleave the DNA–PPE
DOI: 10.1002/ange.200462431
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ing. Another solution comprising [Pd(PPh3)4]
(20 mmol) and CuI (20 mmol) in DMSO (10 mL)
was likewise deoxygenated and subsequently
added dropwise to the monomer solution. The
final mixture was again deoxygenated and
stirred at room temperature under argon for
24 h. The resulting solution was viscous and
brown-yellow in color, and it exhibited an
intense blue-green fluorescence under near-UV
illumination. The solution was then centrifuged
and the precipitated CPG was washed several
times with DMSO and water until the supernatant was clear and colorless. After washing,
the CPG was still yellow-green and highly
fluorescent. The CPG was then incubated in
ammonia at 55 8C to cleave the oligonucleotide
from the CPG and to deprotect the bases. After
overnight incubation, the CPG became white
Scheme 1. Schematic representation of the solid-state synthesis of the DNA–PPE
whereas the liquid phase turned yellow-green
conjugate; for details see text. DMT = dimethoxytrityl.
and fluoresced under UV illumination, thus
indicating that the PPE coupled to DNA was
cleaved from the CPG as a result of the cleavage
of DNA from the support. A control synthesis was carried out
conjugate from the solid support and to remove the protecting
by following the same procedures and experimental condigroups from the oligonucleotide bases. The product, DNA–
tions, but a 16-mer DNA without the 5I-dU base was used.
PPE, was obtained after further desalting by means of ethanol
After three repeated rinses prior to cleaving DNA from the
precipitation (d).
solid support, the control CPG became white, thus indicating
no PPE coupled to the DNA in this control experiment. The
solutions that resulted after ammonia incubation of the CPG
derivatized with 5I-dU oligonucleotide and of the control
CPG were desalted by ethanol precipitation, dried, and
redissolved in deionized water. Figure 1 compares the fluorescence emission spectra of the DNA–PPE and control
Scheme 2. Model molecules used to couple to the 5I-dU-functionalized
solutions. The DNA–PPE solution shows an emission band
oligonucleotide.
with a maximum at 520 nm, which is consistent with a
previous report that this PPE emits at 520 nm in water (the
emission is broad because the PPE is aggregated in water).[5]
Two small organic molecules (Scheme 2) were used to
demonstrate that the 5I-dU-modified oligonucleotide is able
Deaggregation of the PPE, induced by the addition of a
to conjugate to the polymer monomer and oligomer present
nonionic surfactant, dispersion into agarose gel, or changing
in the polymerization reaction mixture. In one model
to methanol as the solvent,[5] shifts its emission maximum to
reaction, ethynylbenzene (1) was coupled with the CPGlinked DNA. In a second reaction, 4-[(2,5-dimethoxyphenyl)ethynyl]-4’-ethynyl-1,1’-biphenyl (2) was used to mimic a
small PPE oligomer. The coupling products from both model
reactions were analyzed with reversed-phase gradient HPLC/
ESI MS. The molecular weights observed by mass spectrometry matched those calculated from the product structures, a
result indicating that the CPG-linked oligonucleotide is able
to undergo cross-coupling with terminal acetylenes under
Sonogashira coupling conditions.
In the synthesis of DNA–PPE, the CPG from four CPG
columns (1-mmol scale) containing the 5I-dU-modified oligonucleotide was transferred to a 100-mL round-bottomed flask
containing dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO, 20 mL). The PPE
monomers disodium 3-[2,5-diiodo-4-(3-sulfonatopropoxy)phenoxy]propane-1-sulfonate (690 mmol) and 1,4-diethynylbenzene (694 mmol) were then added to the solution with
stirring under a gentle flow of argon. The resulting solution
Figure 1. Fluorescence emission spectra of DNA–PPE and the control
was deoxygenated by several cycles of vacuum–argon degasssolution. If : fluorescence intensity.
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455 nm (see the Supporting Information). The strong fluorescence from the DNA–PPE solution and the lack of
fluorescence from the control solution suggest that the PPE
has been successfully coupled to the DNA.
Mass spectrometry analysis indicated that the DNA
structure remained intact after exposure to the polymerization conditions (see the Supporting Information). Data
from DNA hybridization experiments revealed no significant
change in the binding capability of these oligonucleotides (see
the Supporting Information).
The fact that the PPE is coupled to the 5I-dU-modified
DNA was further confirmed by gel electrophoresis, in which a
0.5 % agarose gel was used to analyze the DNA–PPE
conjugate, the PPE, and the DNA obtained from the control
synthesis. As shown in Figure 2, in the DNA lane (3), only one
Figure 2. Gel electrophoresis of PPE–DNA (lane 1), PPE (lane 2), and
DNA (lane 3) samples. Conditions: agarose (0.5 %), 1 TBE buffer
(0.089 m tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris), 0.089 m borate, and
2 mm ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA), pH 8.2–8.4), 90 V for
20 min. The gel was prestained with ethidium bromide for DNA
detection. Pictures were taken with a camera in fluorescence mode
with a 540–640 nm band pass filter. This filter passes emission from
ethidium bromide, thereby indicating the presence of oligonucleotide,
while removing the emission for PPE under these conditions
(PPE emits at 455 nm in agarose gel).
construct a variety of biosensors with conjugated polymers,
where precise control of the conjugation ratio of recognition
molecule to polymer and complete separation of free
conjugated polymer from biofunctionalized conjugated polymer are crucial. Our first attempt was to synthesize a
molecular beacon with a conjugated polymer chain as its
fluorophore. A molecular beacon[20, 21] is a hairpin-shaped
oligonucleotide with a fluorescent dye (Fl) at one end and a
quencher (Q) at the other end. In the absence of the target
DNA, the fluorescent dye and quencher molecule are brought
close together by the self-complementary stem of the probe,
and the fluorescence signal is suppressed. The perfectly
matched DNA duplex is more stable than the single-stranded
hairpin, so the molecular beacon readily hybridizes to its
target sequence, thereby disrupting the stem structure,
separating the fluorophore from the quencher, and restoring
the fluorescence signal (Scheme 3 a). Compared to a traditional molecular beacon, this new design uses a polymer chain
as the fluorophore to amplify the fluorescence signal. When
the molecular beacon is in its closed state, the polymer chain
will be brought close to the quencher. It is expected that the
fluorescence of the conjugated polymer will be strongly
suppressed because of the superquenching property of the
conjugated polymer. After target-DNA binding, the fluorescence of the conjugated polymer will be restored as a result of
the increased separation distance between the conjugated
polymer and the quencher (Scheme 3 b).
The synthesis of the molecular beacon followed the same
procedure as described above, except that a 3’-DABCYLmodified quencher CPG was used instead of a regular base
CPG (Scheme 4; DABCYL = 4-(4-(dimethylamino)phenylazo)benzoic acid). As a universal quencher, DABCYL has
been widely used as the quencher in molecular-beacon
synthesis. Another reason why DABCYL was chosen was
because its absorption overlaps with the PPE emission.
Quenching experiments revealed that the Stern–Volmer
quenching constant of DABCYL to PPE in free solution is
about 4 106 m 1 (see the Supporting Information). The
molecular-beacon sequence synthesized was 5’-PPECC TAG CTC TAA ATC ACTATG GTC GCG CTAGGDABCYL-3’. Theoretical calculations indicated that this
sequence could form a stable hairpin structure.
Figure 3 shows the response of the molecular beacon
labeled with the conjugated polymer to a fivefold excess of its
target DNA. When a lower concentration of the target was
band is observed, while in the PPE lane (2), no DNA band
exists. By contrast, there are two bands in the DNA–PPE lane
(1), which suggests that at least two types of DNA are present.
One is probably the “free” DNA (this band has a migration
rate similar to that in lane 3), and the second is likely to be the
DNA–PPE conjugate. The DNA–PPE band migrates very
little in the agarose matrix; the reasons
might be the rigid rod structure[7] of the
PPE and the large molecular weight of
the PPE–DNA conjugate. Quantitative analysis of the DNA–PPE lane
revealed that the ratio of the overall
intensity for the DNA band to that for
the DNA–PPE conjugate band is
about 1.2:1, a result that indicates a
yield higher than 45 % for the coupling
reaction between the DNA strand and
Scheme 3. Working principles of a molecular beacon (a) and a conjugated-polymer-labeled
the PPE.
molecular beacon (b). In a regular molecular beacon, one fluorophore is used to report a targetThe successful establishment of
binding event, whereas a chain of fluorophores is used in the polymer-labeled molecular beacon.
this conjugation method allows us to
Q = quencher, Fl = fluorophore.
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Angew. Chem. 2005, 117, 2628 –2632
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Scheme 4. Schematic representation of the solid-state synthesis of the PPE-labeled molecular beacon. Q stands for the DABCYL quencher.
stoichiometric labeling of DNA to the polymer chain, easy
separation to enable high purity of the desired final product,
high yields for the DNA–PPE conjugation, and a stable
product as a result of covalent conjugation between the
biomolecules and the PPE. This new method makes it
possible to efficiently couple a fluorescent amplifying polymer with biomolecules for bioanalysis and biosensor applications. As an example of using a conjugated polymer for DNA
sensing, a molecular beacon with a conjugated polymer chain
as the signaling element was prepared. Without the strategies
described herein, the preparation of such a molecular beacon
would be extremely difficult or even impossible. This
molecular beacon gave a strong fluorescence signal specifically for the complementary sequence and showed promising
results in bioanalysis. The physical, chemical, spectral, and
biological properties of the DNA–PPE hybrid material are
currently being investigated. The application of PPE-labeled
molecular beacons to highly sensitive bioassays[22] is in
progress.
Figure 3. Response of the PPE-labeled molecular beacon synthesized
according to Scheme 4 to its target DNA. Target sequence: 5’-GCG ACC ATA GTG ATT TAG A-3’. Buffer conditions: 20 mm Tris-HCl (pH 7.5),
50 mm NaCl, 5 mm MgCl2, 0.1 % Tween 20.
used, a slower reaction profile was observed. When a large
excess of random-sequence DNA was added to the molecularbeacon solution as a negative control, no substantial change in
the fluorescence intensity was observed. These hybridization
results suggested that 1) the DABCYL molecule quenches
the polymer chain when the molecular beacon is in the hairpin
conformation and 2) the molecular beacon labeled with
conjugated polymer functions as a normal molecular beacon
that selectively hybridizes to its target DNA.
In conclusion, a novel synthetic method has been developed for the conjugation of a water-soluble PPE with an
oligonucleotide. Coupling was achieved by carrying out the
PPE polymerization reaction in the presence of a 5I-dUterminated oligonucleotide linked to a CPG support. The
DNA–PPE product can be easily separated from free PPE by
centrifugation. The conjugation reaction is simple, fast, and
easily controllable. The efficiency of the DNA–PPE coupling
is high. Mass spectrometry analysis and the results of a DNAhybridization study indicated that the polymerization conditions were so mild that the DNA exposed to them not only
remained structurally intact but also kept its biorecognition
capability. The new method has four distinct advantages:
Angew. Chem. 2005, 117, 2628 –2632
Received: October 26, 2004
Published online: March 18, 2005
.
www.angewandte.de
Keywords: biosensors · conjugated polymers ·
fluorescent probes · molecular beacons · oligonucleotides
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